Method and system of determining access to records of members of a community

• US 6,208,984 B1
• Filed: 08/29/1997
• Issued: 03/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Electronic Data Systems Corporation (Perspecta, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosenthal, Kathryn A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shah, Sanjiv
• Application Number:
  US08/921,128
• Time in Patent Office: 1,306 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/2, 707/9
• US Class Current: 707/783
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access

Abstract

A method of authorizing access to records of members of a community in response to a request by a user may comprise determining if a relationship exists between the user requesting access to a record of a member of a community and the member. If a relationship exists between the user and the member, the type of relationship may be determined. For the relationship type, it may be determined if requested access to records of the member is authorized.

Claims

1. A method of determining access to records of members within a community, comprising the steps of:

receiving a management relationship assignment for each member of the community relative to other members of the community;

in response to a request by a user to access a record of a member of the community, automatically determining if a management relationship exists between the user requesting access to the record of the member of the community and the member;

if the management relationship exists between the user and the member, automatically determining a type of management relationship between the user and the member; and

for the management relationship type, automatically determining if the requested access to the record of the member is authorized.

2. The method of claim 1, if the requested access to the record of the member is not authorized for the management relationship type, further comprising the step of automatically determining if reduced access to the record is authorized for the management relationship type.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of automatically determining if reduced access to the record is authorized for the management relationship type comprises the step of utilizing a user exit to evaluate the management relationship type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the community comprises a business and the member comprises an employee of the business.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of automatically determining if a management relationship exists between the user and the member comprises the step of evaluating at least one evaluation path of the user to identify members of the community related to the user, the evaluation path based on a type of management relationship formed in the community.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of evaluating the at least one evaluation path of the user comprises evaluating the evaluation path starting with a position identifier of the user.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising obtaining the position identifier of the user by the steps of:

receiving a user identifier;

automatically using the user identifier to retrieve a personnel identifier of the user; and

automatically using the personnel identifier to retrieve the position identifier of the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of automatically determining if a management relationship exists between the user and the member comprises the steps of:

automatically evaluating an evaluation path of the user to identify members of the community related to the user, the evaluation path based on a type of management relationship formed in the community;

automatically generating a relationship record comprising identified members of the community related to the user based on the evaluation path; and

automatically determining if the relationship record identifies the member.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of automatically determining if a management relationship exists between the user and the member comprises the steps of:

receiving a position identifier of a user;

automatically entering the position identifier of the user into a starting point of an evaluation path, the evaluation path based on a type of management relationship formed in the community;

automatically evaluating the evaluation path to identify members of the community related to the user;

automatically generating a relationship record comprising identified members of the community related to the user; and

automatically determining if the relationship record identifies the member.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of automatically determining if a management relationship exists between the user and the member comprises the step of evaluating an evaluation path of the member to determine if the evaluation path leads to the user, the evaluation path based on a type of management relationship formed in the community.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of automatically evaluating a plurality of evaluation paths of the member, each of the plurality of evaluation paths based on a different type of management relationship formed in the community.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of evaluating an evaluation path of the member comprises evaluating the evaluation path starting with an identifier of the member.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

automatically substituting an identifier of the member for a dummy number in a starting point of the evaluation path; and

evaluating the evaluation paths starting with the identifier of the member.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically determining if a management relationship exists comprises:

automatically determining a position of the user within the community;

automatically determining a position of the member within the community; and

automatically determining if a management relationship exists between the position of the user and the position of the member.

15. A method of determining relationships between members of a community, comprising the steps of:

providing a profile assignment table including an evaluation path having a starting point, the evaluation path based on a type of management relationship assignment received for each member of the community relative to other members of the community;

automatically entering an identifier associated with a member of the community into the starting point; and

automatically evaluating the evaluation path starting with the identifier of the member of the community to determine related members of the community for the type of management relationship defined by the evaluation path.

16. A method of claim 15, wherein the step of entering an identifier associated with the member of the community into the starting point of the evaluation path comprises the step of overwriting a dummy number in the starting point of the evaluation path.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifier indicates a position of the member within the community.

18. A dynamic profile assignment table for determining a relationship between members of a community, comprising:

at least one evaluation path having a starting point, the evaluation path based on a type of management relationship assignment received for each member of the community relative to other members of the community;

the starting point comprising a dummy number operable to be replaced with an identifier associated with a member of a community; and

the evaluation path operable to be evaluated starting with the identifier associated with the member of the community to determine related members of the community for the type of management relationship defined by the evaluation path.

19. The dynamic profile assignment table of claim 18, wherein the identifier indicates a position of the member within the community.